Subjects: Fiji; John Della Bosca’s comments; jobs figures; GST; Federation trip
E&OE………………………………………………………………………………….
GRIMSHAW:
Prime Minister good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Tracey.
GRIMSHAW:
You just heard George Speight say that Australia should “butt out” of this. Are you going to?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. We’re not going to walk away from our international responsibility. I mean, what’s happened is that a democratically elected Prime Minister has been removed in a criminal act. I mean there’s no point in mincing words. He was kidnapped, detained unlawfully. It was a criminal act, he was democratically elected. And what George Speight and his supporters are arguing for is a racially prejudiced constitution. They are really saying that the Fijians of Indian heritage are not entitled to the same rights in Fiji as Fijians of another heritage. Now that just isn’t acceptable. It’s not acceptable in Australia and it can’t be accepted. Now the question of how far one goes in demonstrating one’s disapproval of something like that is something to be considered, and I’ll be talking to the Foreign Minister today about that. He’s arriving back in Australia and we’ll be having a talk about it. But nobody should imagine that Australia accepts in a diplomatic sense in any way the criminal removal of, and the unlawful removal of a democratically elected Prime Minister. It’s just not acceptable in today’s world.
GRIMSHAW:
Are you leaning towards sanctions? Does it seem to you that that’s inevitable now for Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Tracey, we announced a number of measures that we said would come into effect with the situation resolved itself in the sense of us knowing what the medium term outcome was. Now that….
GRIMSHAW:
[inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
That has now happened and I’ll be talking to the Foreign Minister about where we go from now. There’s always the problem with economic sanctions as to whether in the short term at least you don’t end up hurting more the people you’re trying to help. But that’s something we’ll take into account. But what has happened is just the overthrow illegally, in a criminal fashion, of a democratically elected Prime Minister.
GRIMSHAW:
Have you spoken to him, Mahendra Chaudhry, or do you intend to?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m going to try and talk to him on the phone today, yes.
GRIMSHAW:
Would you like to see him try to reassert himself politically in Fiji?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s a matter for him. The man has been through a terrible trauma. Remember he was detained for, what, seven or eight weeks. And it’s a terrible experience. But I’ve met him on two occasions and he strikes me as a man of considerable dignity and strength and I wish him well. I hope he does continue the political struggling in his own country. He has every right to.
GRIMSHAW:
Would you be concerned about the potential for turmoil though in Fiji [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think we’ve had turmoil, I mean you couldn’t have had much more turmoil than they’ve had recently. Their tourist industry has collapsed. We talk about the impact of economic sanctions from outside. The damage done by the State action to the Fijian economy already is immense.
GRIMSHAW:
Alright. Let’s move onto the GST. It has its supporters but I don’t suppose that you ever imagined that you would count the then president-elect of the Labor Party among them?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I wouldn’t have. But we must understand exactly what’s happened. You’ve got a man who was Mr Beazley’s personal choice as the next president of the Labor Party agreeing with us. I mean, stripped of all the, you know, of all the sort of Labor Party folklore that people have tried to spin around this event in the last 48 hours. What happened was that the man personally selected by the Leader of the Opposition has said the Leader of the Opposition is wrong about the GST. Well you can’t have anything more lethal than that and what he’s done is to agree with what we’ve been saying for ages and that is that the Labor Party has been running a very bad negative campaign against the Australian interest over the last couple of years.
GRIMSHAW:
Alright. He’s since been stripped of his candidacy for the federal presidency. He’s recanted. Kim Beazley has reaffirmed his commitment to roll back. Are we entitled now to see his comments as perhaps as the ill conceived rantings of one man who was perhaps a little too big for his boots?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no we’re not. I mean you can do all they’ve done, but nothing can unsay what he said. I mean he meant it. He wouldn’t have said it otherwise. I mean, he was the ALP’s campaign director in New South Wales for three State elections. He is a senior minister. He was Mr Beazley’s, not his own, Mr Beazley said Della come here, I want you to be federal president because you’re a political genius. Now that’s basically what happened. And the man who Mr Beazley said was a political genius has said that what the Labor Party is doing on the GST is wrong. Now he is right. He did tell the truth. They are wrong. It is time that they accepted the verdict of the Australian people. But we’re going to move on. I mean what we’re interested in is things like yesterday’s job figures. The lowest unemployment rate for 10 years. We’ve created 744,000 jobs in four years. I mean that’s what matters to me and that’s why we brought in tax reform because we want to further strengthen the Australian economy. That’s the reason we’re doing these things. And I’m more interested in doing good things for the Australian people in the future than the political conflict that’s involved although you do have to get involved in that.
GRIMSHAW:
I want to talk to you about the job figures in a moment. Just one final question on the Labor turmoil if you like. You’re not tempted to go early to an election while Labor is in trouble.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no, look I was elected for three years. The Australian public would be entitled to react very cynically to any opportunistic attempt by the Government to exploit the present situation. You don’t get any marks for that. The public’s awake up to that sort of thing. I wouldn’t insult them by trying to do that.
GRIMSHAW:
All right. On the issue of job figures- jobless numbers are down but now we find out that in Sydney at least your Government is planning to trial new three month limitations on people looking for work before they’re forced into a work for the dole program. Is that a little harsh?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don’t think so when you consider the surfeit of jobs in many parts of Sydney. I mean you’ve got effective full employment in large areas of Sydney now and for a temporary period while the Olympics are on it is not unreasonable to say that if you’ve been looking for work for three months and you haven’t got a job then you might come into the work for the dole scheme. I mean we’re not taking people’s benefits away. They won’t lose their dole, they’ll just be required to do one of the several things that you are required to do in return for your unemployment benefits under the scheme. I don’t think that’s the least bit unreasonable.
GRIMSHAW:
But your Employment Minister, Tony Abbott, is saying that employment shouldn’t be a lifestyle choice. I suppose if you’re a sacked university professor or a sacked company director you might want more than three months to look for a job before you find yourself cleaning up Olympic venues or something wouldn’t you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, many of those people of course are in a different position to others because they may have redundancies. But look it’s a question of balance. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say to somebody when you’ve got an area of very high employment and a lot of opportunities that you should do something in return for your unemployment benefit after three months. We’re not saying they’re going to lose their dole. People seem to sometimes be under the misapprehension with work for the dole that it means that you lose your unemployment benefit. What it means is that if you’re not willing to do something in return for the unemployment benefit you might lose it. Now I think that is fair, I really do and I suspect most Australians think it’s fair.
GRIMSHAW:
Is it a trial program? Are you planning to expand it beyond Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER:
We don’t have any plan to do that at present, no.
GRIMSHAW:
All right. On the matter of your centenary tour it was as an anniversary party. It was condemned in many quarters- too far away, too expensive and too pompous for a lot of Australians to identify with. What do you say to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don’t accept that criticism. I don’t agree with it. And I know it was made by some and others defended it. You say it was too far away. It was where it happened. I mean if you’re going to observe history you should do so faithfully. And the legal act that gave force to the Commonwealth of Australia was the passage of the Act through the Commonwealth Parliament and we were just observing history. I mean you don’t observe a battle that occurred in a far off country other than in that country as well of course in Australia. I find that proposition ridiculous. I mean we couldn’t have observed the passage of the Act through the British Parliament in Canberra. I mean we’re going to have a whole year of centenary events. As far as the pomp is concerned - when you go to another country you are entertained according to the style of that country. When I have been to Jakarta I have been entertained in the Balinese style or a Javanese style - Javanese style in Jakarta and a Balinese style in other parts of the country because that is the custom of the nation. And I find it extraordinary that people you know would think that’s peculiar. I mean I was a guest in the United Kingdom and I was entertained I think in a complimentary way by the British according to their custom.
GRIMSHAW:
Can I ask you this? Did Cherie Blair raise the issue of mandatory sentencing with you while you were over there?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well no because I didn’t meet her.
GRIMSHAW:
Would you have wanted someone to give you the tip that she was about to [inaudible] the Human Rights Commission?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t think anybody should get very excited about that. She’s a human rights lawyer and she’s appeared in cases against her husband’s government. So I can’t imagine that having appeared against her husband’s government she’d be particularly sensitive about appearing against the Australian Government.
GRIMSHAW:
So you don’t see it as a snub against…
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no I see it as the act of a private lawyer taking a brief which is the obligation of lawyers in their profession. I don’t attach any significance at all. As I say she’s appeared against her husband’s government so why would she, having done that, why would she make an exception of the Australian Government.
GRIMSHAW:
All right we’ll leave it there.
[ends]